It is common for enterprises (e.g., companies, educational organizations, government agencies, etc.) to store data of the enterprises on centralized storage systems. Such storage systems typically include fault-tolerant mechanisms that allow retrieval of data even if certain components of the storage systems fail.
Many storage systems use disk arrays, which are arrays of disk-based storage devices. For improved fault tolerance, some disk arrays use dual-port disk-based storage devices coupled to redundant networks and redundant controllers. In such an arrangement, failure of a network or a controller will not cause loss of data since another network or another controller can be used to access data in a dual-port disk device.
An issue associated with using disk-based storage devices is that access speeds of a disk-based storage device are relatively poor. However, fault-tolerant technology for higher access speed storage devices, such as solid-state storage devices, is not as mature as those provided for disk-based storage devices. As a result, storage systems that are based oh solid state, storage devices do not provide the enhanced level of data protection that may be present in disk-based storage systems.